Holder for penholders or pencils



N0. 6|2,775. Patented 00f. l8, I898.

W. JOHNSTON, 1R.

HOLDER FOR PENHOLDERS 0R PENCILS.

(Application filed m. 29, 1897.)

(No llodel lizveiviar:

i l g NITE WILLIAM JOHNSTON, JR, OF SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS.

HOLDER FOR PENHOLDERS OR PENCILS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 612,775, dated October 18, 1898.

Application filed March 29, 1897. Serial No, 629,638. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM JOHNSTON, J r., of Somerville, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Holders for Penholders or Pencils, of which the following is a description sufficiently full, clear, and exact to enable those skilled in the art to which it appertains or with which it is most nearly connected to make and use the same.

My invention relates to devices for holding pens, pencils, and otherlike articles, and has for its object to provide improved means for receiving and holding articles of this description of different sizes.

It consists in features of construction hereinafter described, and particularly set forth in the appended claim.

Of the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective View of my pencil-holder. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal cross'section of the same.

The device comprises in its essential features a back plate a, of metal or any suitable material, provided with suitable fastening II18&11S-S110l1 as a clasp-pin Z), for example and having projecting from its front face headed studs or pins 0. The clamping or retaining part (1 is formed of a strip of metal bent so as to form several bow-shaped swells or pockets-such as are shown, for example, at e in Fig. 2the fiat portion f of the strip lying between these bow-shaped parts being adapted to rest against the face of the back plate. This intermediate portion f is perforated to receive the studs or pins mentioned above. Each pin is provided with a spring g, which serves to keep the strip normally pressed against the face of the back plate. The upper part of the bow-shaped parts of said strip is preferably slightly flared to facilitate the insertion of a pencil or other object.

The operation of my invention is as follows: a

The pencil is thrust into one of the bow por- .become set to a new position. ployment of the springs in connection with a tions or pockets of the strip and owing to the action of the springs is firmly clamped against the back plate, and is thus retained in place.

It is obvious that pencils of a somewhat larger size than usual may be carried in this device without so bending or distorting the strip as to unfit it to afterward hold pencils of a smaller size, inasmuch as the yielding action is secured mainly through the resiliency of the spiral springs and not by bending the metal strip itself.

In articles of this class, where the clamping action is obtained by the bending of the strip which forms the pockets, the resiliency of the metal or other material employed is destroyed by repeated use, as the metallic strips soon lose their elasticity and under continual strain By the emstrip I am able to overcome this objection.

Without attempting to set forth all the different forms in which my invention may be embodied or all the uses to which it may be applied, what I regard as my invention, and what I desire to claim, is-

A pencil-holder comprising a back plate,

headed pins secured to and projecting from said back plate, a clamping-plate formed with a plurality of bows or pockets, said pins projecting through perforations in the portion of the plate between the pockets, and springs interposed between the heads of the pins and the intermediate portion of the clampingplate, whereby the pockets are enabled to retain pencils of different sizes without unduly springing the clamping-plate.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, this 26th day of March, A. D. 1897.

IVILLIAM JOHNSTON, JR.

lVitnesses:

ARTHUR F. RANDALL, GEO. V. GODDARD. 

